Prepping For Iron Claw Consumed Every Bit Of Zac Efron
Zac Efron has already earned the best reviews of his career for the dark new professional wrestling film "The Iron Claw," and now he and his co-stars are opening up about the intense process of making the movie. In this week's Variety cover story, the former teen idol spoke about what it was like to embody real-life athlete and performer Kevin Von Erich, whose pro wrestler family was torn apart by a string of accidents and tragedies in the '80s and '90s. While Efron's preparation for the role doesn't sound like it was dangerous (he says he "learned the hard way about not sacrificing [his] real health for a look on camera" from past roles), it does come across as a pretty isolating and all-consuming experience.
"Harris and I — we got dinner every once in a while, or we allowed ourselves a little bit of life outside of work during that time," co-star Jeremy Allen White told Variety. "And I'm not so sure about Zac. He was kind of a machine during that time." White noted that the choice was a fitting one, given that the real Von Erich brothers probably also "felt like machines in some game constructed by their father." Harris Dickinson, who played David Von Ehrich, expressed similar sentiments about Efron's laser-sharp sense of focus. "Because he put in so much commitment, and so much time, his mindset was all 'Iron Claw,'" Dickson told the outlet. "His life was solely about that. It was contained. And it was shut off from everything else."
The actor's transformation was isolating
Hollywood has a long history of encouraging actors to live in the worst possible headspace for roles while also pushing their bodies to the brink. Even actors who don't try to live as their characters all the time (a process often referred to as Method acting, though that's not exactly what the Method is) still end up changed by the psychological effects of rigorous physical transformation. Efron certainly felt that. "Having all that weight on, you don't feel normal," he explained, "and the delayed-onset muscle soreness was through the roof."
The actor says that managing his bodily transformation and the impact of a shoot that required real in-ring action changed his social life, saying, "You don't have to be super social. I found myself withdrawing quite a bit." Nicole Kidman, who remains friends with Efron after the two co-starred in Lee Daniels' 2012 film "The Paperboy," told Variety the actor clearly "put his whole heart and soul into ['The Iron Claw.']" She says she "watched him physically and emotionally change to play that role."
'It was a singular focus for months'
Efron has previously talked about struggling with perfectionism, and this project seems to be no exception. "That necessity to be perfect — it became an obsession," he told Variety when discussing the physical process required for the role. "It was a singular focus for months. And your life goes out the window during prep." Despite all this, both Efron and his castmates note that filming was actually really positive for the actor. White calls him a "cheerleader" and says he "was consistently patting us on the back and picking us up." Efron says he felt more comfortable on the set of "The Iron Claw" than he ever had before, an impressive compliment given that he's been working in the industry for two decades now.
Still, it must be a relief for Efron to be free of the headspace that came with playing such a tragic figure. In the cover story, he comes across as someone with both a habit of giving his work more of himself than may be healthy, and an acute awareness of that habit. "I don't know how far away Zac got from Kevin during the entirety of the filming process, but if I had to guess, I don't think he ever drifted too far away from character," White told the outlet. Before you start worrying too much about Efron, though, it's worth noting that he no longer seems to be trapped in a loner beefcake state of mind; these days he can be found trying to remember lines from "High School Musical" and reuniting with White and Dickinson for some adorable pet therapy.
"The Iron Claw" hits theaters December 22, 2023.